Dementia is not a specific disease, but a condition that is associated with a wide range of symptoms that, in turn, are associated with a decline in memory, among other brain functions. Dementia can affect the young, middle aged, and elderly, but it is generally more prevalent in adults over the age of 60. More than three million cases of dementia are diagnosed yearly in the United States alone.
It is believed that dementia results from damage to nerve cells in the brain, brain cell death, and/or neurodegenerative diseases. Some dementias are believed to be due to exogenous factors such as mediations, deficiencies, such as vitamin deficiencies, head injuries, strokes, brain tumors, prion diseases, and HIV infection. However, no single one reason why a patient develops dementia has been identified.
Dementia can affect different areas of the brain, thereby resulting in different symptoms. The most common symptom of dementia is memory loss, which may be short term or long term, and greatly affects quality of life for patients of all ages. Although dementia generally cannot be cured, there are medications and therapies that can delay halt or even delay the progression of symptoms.
What are needed are effective methods of treating dementia.